The global gag rule

The Global Gag Rule will have disastrous implications for women and girls.

What is the Global Gag Rule?

The Executive Order is known as the Global Gag Rule, or the Mexico City Policy, will have disastrous implications for women and girls in the communities we serve, and on our ability to support them with clean water, sanitation and hygiene. The Global Gag Rule is not new; it’s an Executive Order that, in one form or another, has been in place for 17 of the past 32 years.

What is new is its reach. Existing US laws already prohibit the use of US federal funds to support abortion services, research or advocacy.The Global Gag Rule doesn’t change that.

What is new in this iteration?

But President Trump’s Global Gag Rule could withhold all US global health funding from any foreign organization that engages in abortion services, research or advocacy, even from non-US government sources. It forces these organizations to choose: abandon all abortion-related services, or lose all US government funding for critical global health programs including water, sanitation and hygiene.

Approximately one-third of water, sanitation and hygiene funding is categorized as global health funding. That’s why the Global Gag Rule may have a direct and drastic impact on WASH services worldwide, including the ones we provide. Over the coming months, you can expect that we will continue fighting for all women and children to have access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene, and for all health systems to make safe motherhood, childbirth and WASH a priority.

To find out more about our stance on the Global Gag Rule and other issues, read our recent blog post, explaining our approach and why we fight for water, sanitation and hygiene for everyone, everywhere.